Berry Plastics Increasing Jobs and Production in Madisonville
By: Chris Veech
Updated: October 31, 2012
"This is one of the most exciting days for Hopkins County I can remember," said Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.
Governor Beshear isn't the only person that believes that. Work has already started on Berry Plastics's $9 6million reinvestment in Madisonville. Earlier this year, Berry laid off 100 employees and closed the plant to move production of its rigid closed tops closer to its customers. But now Berry has a new product, and it decided to begin that production in Madisonville.
"We always knew this was a great asset," said Berry Plastics CEO Jon Rich. "We knew it was a great community with a great workforce, and so we were very pleased to be able to introduce a whole new technology, which will ultimately be multiple times bigger than what we were doing here before.
Berry says the new rigid open top product will be manufactured for restaurants, but that is about all it is saying about the new product. More details on that should come in a couple of weeks. Right now officials are just happy to see the jobs flowing back into the commonwealth.
"420 jobs represents five percent of the households," said Madisonville Mayor David Jackson. "8,000 households that we have in our community, so it's a great day.
"That's a huge bump in our workforce," said Governor Beshear. "That's gonna be such a great economic bost for Hopkins County and the entire western Kentucky region.
People should be able to apply for the jobs by Christmas, the plant hopes to be open by Summer.
